


缘起缘未了 | when I see you again

by stickmarionette



Category: Chinese Mythology
Genre: 1920s, Ancient China, Animal spirits, Enemies to Friends to Lovers, F/F, Folklore, Inspired by The Legend of the White Snake (Chinese Mythology), Meet-Cute, Minor Xu Xian/Bai Suzhen, Reincarnation, Urban Fantasy, Xianxia
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-17
Updated: 2020-12-17
Packaged: 2021-03-11 03:22:29
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 9,078
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28128324
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/stickmarionette/pseuds/stickmarionette
Summary: In the usual telling, the story goes like this:A young boy does a favour for a white snake spirit. Sometimes he's a cowherd, sometimes a child buying sweets, sometimes he's even a snake hunter. Either way, the white snake resolves to repay him. She gains powers and human form.She saves a green snake spirit from death and gains her allegiance.She finds the kind boy. Or maybe she finds his soul, in a new body. Thanks to the machinations of a monk, the boy finds out what she is and they are separated - in some tellings for a very long time - but finally reunited.The green snake betrays the white snake. Or she saves her. Sometimes she saves them all, out of her love for the white snake.That, at least, is almost always true.
Relationships: Xiaoqing | Green Snake (Chinese Mythology)/Bái Sùzhēn | Madame White Snake (Chinese Mythology)
Comments: 12
Kudos: 37
Collections: Yuletide 2020





	缘起缘未了 | when I see you again

**Author's Note:**

  * For [sorori](https://archiveofourown.org/users/sorori/gifts).



> Dear recipient, I was utterly delighted to match with you on this story which is so dear to my heart and has been since I was a child. I really hope you like this.
> 
> Thanks to Ferritin4 for heroic beta-reading and other general assistance. You're a life-saver. Thanks to shihadchick for helping me figure out proper footnotes.
> 
> Title adapted from the song [缘起](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yzh7ncrH1vc), one of the theme songs for the animated movie White Snake, performed by the amazing Zhou Shen.
> 
> I use a number of Chinese terms (mostly forms of address) throughout this story and have tried my best to footnote them. If you are interested in more general background and history, there are some notes on that at the end too.

In the usual telling, the story goes like this:

A young boy does a favour for a white snake spirit. Sometimes he's a cowherd, sometimes just a child buying sweets, sometimes he's even a snake hunter. Maybe he saves her life. Maybe he just drops the elixir of immortality into a river.

Either way, the white snake resolves to repay him. She gains powers and human form from the elixir. Or maybe she simply waits and absorbs the spiritual energies of the world around her for many, many years, becoming stronger and wiser and gaining sentience, and attains human form that way.

She saves a green snake spirit from death and gains her allegiance.

She finds the kind boy. Or maybe she finds the boy's soul, many cycles later, in his new body. Either way, they marry and open a medicine shop.

Thanks to the machinations of a monk who is maybe also a spirit in disguise, the boy finds out what she is, but eventually he remembers that he loves her and accepts her regardless. They are separated - in some tellings for a very long time - but finally reunited.

The green snake betrays the white snake. Or she saves her. Sometimes she saves them all, out of her love for the white snake.

That, at least, is almost always true.

[some time ago

Hangzhou/杭州]

Years later, her lady will ask, _when did you know that you were different from before?_

And Xiaoqing will say, _when I knew what it was to want._

It was like this: she saw a jade bracelet on a woman's wrist and wanted it. Before that she'd only known sustenance and survival and had barely enough awareness to know she'd already lived ten, twenty normal lifetimes for her kind.

After that, her awareness expanded. A hundred years after that, she finally amassed enough power to take human form.

She called herself Qing-er, after her shining verdant scales, and took pleasure in the thrill of an unheard confession every time a merchant or shopkeeper called her Qing-guniang1. The voluminous robes they saw on her false body spoke of moderate wealth, layers in the green of the grass and the green of West Lake in sunlight and the green of pine. All illusions, of course.

Everything she had that was not an illusion, she saw, wanted and stole.

The human world was full of things to want. The sweet and tart taste of tanghulu2. The satisfying burn of liquor down her throat. The glittering shine of a gold-wrought hairpiece sitting atop a woman's head. She wanted it all.

Then she tried to steal from a monk called Fahai, only it turned out he was not just a monk, and he almost killed her. Healing from the injuries he inflicted took a very long time and was incredibly dull; clearly she needed to become more powerful.

For a creature such as her to attain human form took lifetimes and unfathomable spiritual energy, and it would take hundreds more years of meditation and training to strengthen her qi further. The thought of all those years spent shut away when she could instead be out in the world was unbearable.

She first heard the name on one of her marketplace outings, half-heartedly eavesdropping on a merchant's tiresome complaints about the pain in his old joints.

"You should go see Bai-niangzi3, she worked miracles on my mother-in-law," chirped the young woman browsing his textiles, and Xiaoqing stopped eyeing her jade belt ornament to listen.

Rumour claimed that Bai-niangzi was a cultivator, skilled with medicine. Her special pellets could heal any disease, restore vitality to the old and weak. It seemed too good to be true, or at least too good for an unaffiliated cultivator to be offering for such a meager price from a humble little shop.

Still. Worth checking out.

*

The door of Bai-niangzi's medicine shop was barely latched. This being a cultivator's abode, Xiaoqing had expected the building to be covered in wards, but if there were any they were so well hidden she didn't feel them as she unlatched the door and crept inside.

A lady leaving her abode unsecured like this as she slept upstairs. _How scandalous_ , Xiaoqing chuckled to herself. This cultivator was either naive to the point of idiocy or she had some reason not to fear intrusion.

Intriguing.

Xiaoqing had to stifle a cough as she closed the door behind her and the pungent scents of herbs and pultrices filled her nose. The floor space inside was very small indeed - it could only comfortably fit about 5 or 6 customers, and the rest was wall to wall neatly labeled drawers filled with herbs and preserved animal parts popularly used in medicine, the shelves only interrupted by a long counter on which she spotted scales and an abacus.

She conjured a weak, flickering light and began to scan the shelves. A few ke4 had passed, during which she startled at every bird cry and creak of floorboards, when she found a little cabinet behind the counter secured with a golden lock.

It was odd to feel her human heart pound with excitement. She had to will her hands not to shake as she touched the lock with a fingertip, applying a delicate brush of qi. It fell apart with an odd hiss, making Xiaoqing tense and freeze up. When nothing else happened, she opened the cabinet. It was mostly empty, save for a white pouch made of fine cotton, embroidered in gold thread with a pair of mandarin ducks.

As her hand touched the pouch there was a rush of air behind her. She stood in a whirl, summoning her chain-sword, and levelled it at a pale, elegant throat.

The lovely, jade-carved face above the point of her sword was barely startled, the full red lips flattened in suppressed amusement, large bright eyes curving into a hint of a smile. She wore elaborate, beautifully embroidered robes, layers and layers of white, the top-most a floaty cloud of lace on silk; a long, wide sash in white silk wound its way around her arms and shoulders. Her hair was done up in elaborate knots and twined around a silver headdress in the shape of a butterfly with its wings spread.

She was very tall - Xiaoqing had to tip her head up to meet her eyes.

"Bai-guniang. Forgive this humble one's intrusion," Xiaoqing said, and smiled down the length of her blade.

Bai Suzhen - for that was the name written on the ledgers at the counter - affected a stern expression. "What kind of thief asks for forgiveness?"

"A polite one."

"What kind of reputable lady asks at the point of a sword?"

"Ah, well. You have me there, Bai-guniang," Xiaoqing laughed.

Bai Suzhen vaulted, putting the counter between them, too fast for Xiaoqing's sword. Xiaoqing coaxed a beam of qi out of its tail; Bai Suzhen ducked and shelves crumpled behind her.

Bai Suzhen gave an exaggerated wince. "Watch yourself. Do you know how hard those herbs are to replace, thief? You'll owe me."

"Only if you can catch me."

Bai Suzhen hadn't drawn a sword. She appeared not to be wearing any spiritual weapons at all, even as she regarded Xiaoqing like she might an amusing shadow play rather than a threat.

"In that case - "

The silk sash slithered off Bai Suzhen's body and wrapped around Xiaoqing like a living thing, warm and thrumming.

She tried to will her limbs to move. She was strong enough to break stone; silk should be nothing. But it was as if she'd been wrapped in enchanted steel.

Bai Suzhen smiled, a brilliant, shining thing that stole Xiaoqing's breath from her lungs, and took slow measured steps forward until they were just an arm's length apart. "There's no use struggling. This sash was blessed by Guanshiyin5 herself."

The gloating curve of her red lips was irresistible, so Xiaoqing leaned forward and stole that too. Even frozen with surprise they were so, so soft, and the rush that sped through her was like nothing she'd ever felt, like power, like sunlight.

No mortal could do that. But Bai Suzhen was just a smart human with a bit of spiritual power. Wasn't she?

Bai Suzhen ran her tongue over her lip; the look on her face was dazed and wondering for just a second before she shook her head at Xiaoqing. "You'll have to pay for that too, thief."

"You're like me," Xiaoqing said, astonished.

"Am I?"

"How can you be like me? You're mortal."

Bai Suzhen tapped a small jade ornament hanging off her belt, and the wave of qi that swept over Xiaoqing could've been a whirlwind. Xiaoqing was no longer young, as animal spirits went, but whatever Bai Suzhen was, she was much older.

"What's your name, thief who steals kisses from innocent maidens? Tell me that first."

That, she supposed, was only fair. "The innocent maiden can call this humble thief Qing-er."

"Green like your pretty scales, hmm?"

Xiaoqing was left gaping for the second time in half a ke. "You - how - "

Bai Suzhen tilted her head. "Qing-er. Xiaoqing, Qing-meimei6, are you going to give me my pouch back?"

"You've vanquished me," Xiaoqing said, not yet knowing how true it was. "Do what you will."

Amusement turned Bai Suzhen's bright eyes into crescent moons and wrote lines into her ageless face.

"What do you think I'm going to do?"

"I don't know, Bai-jiejie7. Surprise me."

She held her breath as Bai Suzhen's heavy gaze swept from the top of her braids to the bottom of her feet, scorching like the mid-day sun. Long, elegant fingers prised the pouch out of Xiaoqing's lax grip.

"Don't try this again, Qing-meimei. Next time I might not let you go."

Xiaoqing's true sight was weak for one of her age. She largely considered time spent developing it a waste, when placed next to more useful skills. Perhaps Guanshiyin herself lent her eyes on this day, for the brief shining moment when she blinked and the outline of Bai Suzhen's willowy form shimmered, and an enormous white snake reared up in her stead, scales gleaming like pearls.

Before she knew anything else, Xiaoqing knew how to want. It overtook her again as Bai Suzhen turned away; she was helpless before the force of it.

Bai Suzhen beckoned with a finger and the sash unwound itself from around Xiaoqing; the sudden loss of warmth was like being dunked in cold water. She shivered and had to stop herself from reaching out.

"Wait. Wait!"

Her legs wouldn't work. She felt like a newborn, like she had when this human form was new and walking felt unnatural. She fell to her knees.

Bai Suzhen stilled at the thump. "What is it?"

"Let me stay. I owe you. I'll work it off."

"You don't need to do that," Bai Suzhen said softly. She was so still she could've been a beautiful statue.

"I want to," Xiaoqing said fiercely.

She had never craved companionship. Her true nature had no room for such things. The only time she had ever worked with another, even of her own kind, it had been for hunting, and they'd parted ways after the kill. This, then, was new, bewildering and almost frightening in its force.

She'd have said just about anything to be allowed to stay.

Bai Suzhen turned back to face her, looking almost as surprised as Xiaoqing felt. "In that case… what do you know about medicine?"

*

Xiaoqing knew almost nothing about healing, but she knew how to hurt, and that was as good a starting point as any. She had always been inquisitive and capable, and she absorbed Bai Suzhen's idiosyncratic teaching quickly.

It was interesting enough, medicine, but by far the superior subject was Bai Suzhen's grasp of disguise. She lived seamlessly as a human mortal, perhaps one with some achievements in cultivation, but otherwise perfectly ordinary. She ate and slept like a mortal and followed the rules of the human world scrupulously, even though she hardly had to. Maybe it amused her to pretend.

Xiaoqing, who had hardly begun to try living in her human guise, watched her easy interactions with the townsfolk as if it were the most riveting play.

They were wandering the market on the waterfront on a hot and humid night, one of those Hangzhou days where the air was still and not a single breeze rippled the surface of West Lake. Xiaoqing darted from one stall to another, looking her fill at all the pretty fabrics and combs and hair ornaments, holding up the choicest and most expensive looking to her face and declaring them too plain with a scoff.

The shopkeepers had no idea what to make of this richly dressed, spoiled girl with poor manners, trailed by a smiling, perfectly poised lady in even more sumptuous robes.

Xiaoqing picked up a hairpin, already trying to think of the imperfection that would most vex the shopkeeper - as it turned out, she had a good eye for flaws in pretty things - and her breath caught.

The pin was metal, finely wrought, topped by a piece of flawless white jade on which a pair of phoenixes had been carved so finely she could see individual feathers.

It was exquisite. She wanted it.

"This guniang has wonderful taste," the shopkeeper exclaimed. "This is my best piece!"

There was no way she had enough silver to buy something that nice.

"It's lovely," she heard herself say.

Bai Suzhen had been inspecting a rack of fans, but something about Xiaoqing's tone caught her attention, and her eyes alighted first on Xiaoqing's face, and then on the hairpin she was still holding.

"Gao-shushu8, where did you get that from?"

"Does Bai-niangzi like it? For you, I'll sell it at my best price."

"Shushu is too kind," Bai Suzhen said. She smiled wide enough that her dimples appeared, until the shopkeeper flushed, and they started to bicker amiably over the price.

Before Xiaoqing could protest - before she could think of what to say - Bai Suzhen was handing over a still-scandalous amount of silver and being handed the hairpin.

"No, no need to wrap it up. Keep well, Gao-shushu."

Bai Suzhen turned to Xiaoqing and gave her an expectant look. Xiaoqing could only stare at her wide-eyed until Bai Suzhen chuckled.

"Duck your head."

She tucked the jade hairpin into the crown of Xiaoqing's hair, piled atop her head in twists before it trailed into braids.

"What are you doing?" Xiaoqing said in a strangely hoarse voice.

"You wanted it. A-Qing is so pretty. She should have nice things," Bai Suzhen said, as if it was nothing remarkable.

"I could've - "

"Stolen it? If you're going to stay, you have to stop fighting me about this," Bai Suzhen said. She slotted her arm through Xiaoqing's and began to drag her away. "Oh, look, tanghulu. Do you want one?"

They wandered along Broken Bridge, watching mandarin ducks glide in West Lake. Xiaoqing kept reaching up to touch the hairpin.

"Bai-jiejie. Suzhen-jie. You shouldn't do this for me."

Bai Suzhen shook her head. "You know what I am. So long as I act with compassion and kindness, as Guanshiyin expects, what does should or shouldn't mean to me?"

Except Xiaoqing didn't know. Her lady was very old, and had once been a simple mountain snake like her. She must have spent a long, long time absorbing spiritual power before she could take human form, and she must have been exceptional to be blessed by Guanshiyin herself. But the form before her was not an illusion like Xiaoqing's. It was a true human body.

"How can you be mortal?" Xiaoqing blurted.

"With this," Bai Suzhen said. The familiar white pouch was dangling from her belt. She reached into it and took out a small medicine jar made out of exquisite white ceramic. "I found a way to shred my essence and keep it in here."

"Why would you do that?" Xiaoqing said, horrified.

"I owe a debt to a human man."

The tender look on Bai Suzhen's face told her half the story. The rest Bai Suzhen shared with her in her soft storyteller's lilt - how the cowherd Xu Xian had saved her life, and she'd never forgotten his kindness.

"One mortal lifetime, to thank him. That's what I asked for."

She'd acquired the name Bai Suzhen then, too. Su for purity and restraint, zhen for feminine virtue.

The name didn't suit her lady at all, really. Perhaps it was what she wished to be, for him.

*

Xiaoqing changed her mind upon meeting the cowherd, who clearly adored his lady wife and would not suffer to alter a hair on her head.

That at least was right. If her lady wished for a simple mortal lifetime of happiness and good works, then that was what she should have, and Xiaoqing would make sure of it.

She guarded their happiness. Almost paid for it with her life, and she would have called it good. After all, she was the reason Fahai found them. If she hadn't tried to steal from him all those years ago, he might never have noticed that Bai Suzhen wasn't quite human.

Xiaoqing thought Xu Xian's love might falter, when he learned what Bai Suzhen was. As it was, he held firm, but what could one mortal man do against someone like Fahai, so powerful and so convinced of his righteousness, so convinced that he was saving an innocent man from a demon?

Even Xiaoqing, as powerful as she had grown, could not stand up against him. If Bai Suzhen had not been mortal, maybe -

If Bai Suzhen had been her true self, she would not have had to trap herself in Leifeng Pagoda to save Xu Xian, and Xiaoqing would not have foolishly tried to storm the Pagoda to release her.

She hadn't been capable of thinking clearly, not with Fahai's parting words echoing through her.

_"Bai Suzhen will never be free. Not unless West Lake dries, or Leifeng Pagoda falls."_

When Fahai struck Xiaoqing with his demon-subduing crown and forced her back into her true form, she launched herself at him, driven by nothing but desperation.

Instead she heard a scream that should not have carried so far, a familiar voice shouting itself hoarse from the highest level of the Pagoda, followed by a great wave of qi so powerful it tore through all the demon-suppression wards and formed a great white snake, a being of pure qi that dove for Fahai and left him bleeding from every orifice.

Xiaoqing had never seen anything like it and knew that she was not meant to. Not even Bai Suzhen could turn herself into this and hope to keep what remained of her mortal body, her mortal lifetime.

The shimmering qi stream surrounded her. She closed her eyes and opened them to the world in amber, Bai Suzhen glowing and misty and human-shaped before her.

She was human-shaped again, too, glowing but solid. Still anchored to the mortal plane. She ached to reach out for Bai Suzhen, even knowing there was nothing more to hold onto.

If this was to be the end, she had to tell her, Bai Suzhen needed to know -

"Don't worry, Bai-jiejie. Xu Xian is all right. I made sure," she said, trying to seem calm, and not as if each word was being dragged out of her throat.

Bai Suzhen smiled down at her. "I knew you would. I knew, even if I had to stay in the Pagoda forever - but why did you come? You know what Fahai is, what he can do."

Xiaoqing was surprised to find herself laughing, a choked up, ugly sound. "Why do you think? Jiejie is so clever, how could you not know?"

Bai Suzhen's eyes widened; she looked almost panicked. "I'm not nearly as good as you think, A-Qing."

That was so absurd Xiaoqing choked out another laugh. "Impossible. How can you say that when - when you just - you shouldn't have - "

She did not need a throat to speak like this, but the words wouldn't come.

"It's all right. I'm happy to pay this price for you, A-Qing," Bai Suzhen said.

But what about me, Xiaoqing wanted to say. What about what I want for you. "Jiejie - please don't - "

Bai Suzhen reached out and placed her hand on Xiaoqing's cheek. Her fingertips were ice cold; they sunk into Xiaoqing's skin. Xiaoqing couldn't help a shiver and Bai Suzhen only smiled wider.

"You never owed me. Forget me now and be happy."

Xiaoqing raised her head and stared up into Bai Suzhen's wide, glowing eyes. "I'll consider it when the seas run dry and stone turns to dust."

Her tone was even, her voice quiet; each word echoed and shivered through her bones, and she saw them have the same effect on Bai Suzhen. An oath before heaven and earth and Guanshiyin herself.

Bai Suzhen reached out with both arms as if she wanted to pull Xiaoqing into an embrace, and dropped them as she seemed to remember where they were and what she was. Instead, she took a half-step closer and pressed her lips to the top of Xiaoqing's head, just lightly enough for Xiaoqing to feel cold start to seep into her.

"We'll meet again. Next time, I'll repay you everything I owe you."

Xiaoqing managed a watery smile, the next time their eyes met. "You don't owe me, my lady."

"I want to," Bai Suzhen said, and her stubborn tone hit Xiaoqing like a punch - it was exactly a copy of her own, all those years ago. "Please."

"Aiya, that's cheating, jiejie! Cheating," she said helplessly.

"Would you expect any less from the great snake demon Bai-niangzi?" Bai Suzhen giggled, before she drew in a deep breath and sobered. "Wait for me. You're powerful now, it won't be so long for you. Find me. Find me and give me this."

Bai Suzhen pressed the white ceramic jar into her hand. Her hand passed through Xiaoqing's, but the jar was solid. Real.

Xiaoqing's grip around it tightened until it hurt.

"I will. I'll find you. I promise."

*

Xiaoqing performs the rituals that will alert her the moment Bai Suzhen returns to the world, and then she settles in to wait. And wait.

Two ordinary human life cycles pass. Xu Xian is long dead and already reincarnated, a girl this time with the same soft eyes. Xiaoqing visits and sets the strongest wards she can, makes certain that this Xu Xian will have a long, happy life undisturbed by anyone who might be looking for Xiaoqing.

Still, the ritual marks she'd set for her lady don't stir. Her soul is nowhere. It might as well not exist. Years go by.

To pass the time, she opens a shop, selling the kinds of little curios she seems to collect just by existing, alongside common supplies for visiting the dead - joss paper, incense, good liquor, wreaths. Commoners know to stop by here on their way up the mountain to see their ancestors. She does a steady trade around the year, and a roaring one around Tomb-Sweeping Day.

Five lifetimes on, she's walking past the black gates of Jinshan Temple - unavoidably, although she tries her best not to go anywhere that reminds her of Fahai - when she sees him.

The same face, the same cold, resolute eyes. Not a reincarnation, she knows instinctively. Somehow, it's Fahai himself.

He recognises her immediately, of course. There's too many people around, and she's grown fond of humans, enough to not want to cause them harm.

His hand twitches, almost imperceptibly, and before she knows it the white pouch - the one thing she never lets out of her sight - jerks its way off her belt and flies into his hand.

"Broken Bridge," he says without moving his mouth, the words sinking into her mind. "Tonight."

He's no less powerful than when her lady vanquished him. More, probably. How else could he have lived through that?

Too powerful for Xiaoqing to defeat alone. She can't bring herself to care.

"I'll be there," she snarls.

*

She hasn't been on Broken Bridge since Bai Suzhen. It reminds her too vividly of her longing, and her failure. She resents every single person in the crowds for not being her lady. So she avoids it, no matter how beautiful the scenery.

She's not seeing West Lake tonight. She sees nothing save for Fahai standing alone, the ceramic jar in his open palm.

"Give it back."

Her voice is hoarse, like she's been screaming.

"Of course. I am no thief, yao-guniang9."

"Give it back."

The jar floats into her hand. She closes her fist around it, as careful as if it were made of rice paper.

Her hand closes around nothing.

"What - what have you done?"

"I have returned the soul jar to you," Fahai says dispassionately. "It has been blessed not to appear unless the white snake demon appears before you and knows who you are to her. How will you make her remember without it, I wonder."

She's heard that sometimes monks who don't give up their worldly concerns when they gain power can go wrong, just like cultivators who deviate. Some people would say all animal spirits start out that way, but she knows that's not true.

"You - Fahai, don't you remember what you swore to do? How can this be right?"

Fahai gave her a pitying smile. "I am not cruel, little snake. Those who are fated to meet will travel a thousand li. Those who aren't may be face to face and still miss each other. I have left you hope. It is more than your kind deserve. Live well, and repent of your nature, and you may yet be blessed."

She hurls her chain-sword at him; it hits thin air.

*

Xiaoqing checks her soul-tracking ritual mark every day. It doesn't stir.

She tries everything to break the curse. None of the books she's gotten her hands on even mention such a thing. Still, she keeps trying. In no time her shop begins to be known for its stock of rare books and manuscripts too.

She helps people with their not-quite natural problems and finds it satisfying, more than she'd ever imagined. It's what her lady used to do, after all.

Years pass.

*

Dynasties have risen and fallen since she began waiting for Bai Suzhen.

She's never tempted to leave Hangzhou. The passing of time has only made it more prosperous, with the flourishing of the trade in silk. In good times people come from across the country to see the beauty of West Lake. _There is paradise above, and there is Suzhou and Hangzhou below_ , as the saying goes. It attracts everyone from peddlers to emperors, and still no Bai Suzhen.

The city is besieged by a man who claims to be a god, or the brother of a god. Something like that. There is no food left and people starve in the streets, so she gives away everything she has and hopes no one asks why she doesn't need to eat, and volunteers to help distribute whatever medicine they have left to the increasing numbers of sick and dead. She stops taking payment for joss money, wreaths, anything anyone might need for funerals before they stop having funerals altogether.

The siege lifts after three months. She never once thinks about leaving.

She rebuilds her shop, at a much better location on the main street, one she couldn't have dreamed of affording before the city was emptied of so many souls.

[1924

Hangzhou]

It's peaceful, for a while. But even she notices that it's not the same. Cultivators no longer roam the streets or live in grand estates. The temples remain but even they have emptied of those who can do more than recite scripture.

And no wonder - the order of the world is not what it was. Foreigners have carved out parts of the city for themselves, not by invitation but by force. She doesn't go near those parts of town, where she'll be mistaken for one of the locals and treated accordingly, like she's less than dirt. It's just gambling dens and brothels, anyway.

She is, after all this time, as much a local as anyone, and there's something like pride in that.

There is no emperor under heaven for the first time in living memory, and Xiaoqing, who has lived through times when there were as many claims to the throne as stars in the sky, is left to marvel at this new age, one of metal and railroads and brick.

She likes the new fashion for light dress, with a slightly tapered waist, a less cumbersome skirt, shortened to just below the knee. Shorter hair is good too, much less of a bother, although she still keeps her braids.

It is in this new era that the soul-tracking mark triggers. At first she thinks it's a mirage. But no - the red circle is unmistakable. The only problem is that it doesn't point anywhere. Her lady is out there and Fahai has made sure she cannot be found.

Every time Xiaoqing passes by the Pagoda she can't help but remember Fahai's curse and will it to fall, for West Lake to run dry.

It doesn't get easier to come here, but she takes to wandering the length of Broken Bridge again. A part of her is convinced this is where it will happen.

It's very late - too late for respectable ladies to be out at night. The ever-present crowds have thinned.

There's a tall figure in a flowing plain white qipao standing on the edge of the bridge, shimmering like a mirage in the misty rain.

Somehow, Xiaoqing doesn't need to see anymore than that. She knows. The world stops turning under her feet.

 _But I don't have an umbrella_ , she thinks, absurdly.

The walk up the bridge seems to take years. She stops next to the lady in white and tries to seem like she's admiring the still surface of the lake instead of staring.

She looks familiar, like a painting of the Bai Suzhen Xiaoqing remembers - a slightly taller nose, a smaller, delicate mouth, but the same eyes. She smiles and it's like a flare in the dark.

"Is there something on my face?"

"No. I'm sorry, I'm being rude. You're so pretty, I couldn't stop myself," Xiaoqing says, light enough for teasing, mischief, when she really means every word.

It doesn't matter that she won't remember who she used to be. It doesn't matter that she doesn't know Xiaoqing. None of it matters.

Her lady laughs. "And you're not selling anything?"

"Not right now," Xiaoqing says, almost giddy.

"My name is Bai Sizhen. Bai as in the colour."

Xiaoqing blinks. "Sizhen?"

"Si for thought. Zhen for truth." Bai Sizhen - that's going to take some getting used to - shrugs. "My parents are very modern."

Si is also for memory, to miss. Xiaoqing swallows past a lump in her throat. "Qing-er. Qing as in - "

She grins and gestures at her jade-green qipao, the matching thick jade bracelet on her wrist clinking.

Bai Sizhen's eyes flicker over her from head to toe. She's still much taller than Xiaoqing, which Xiaoqing can only find delightful. Everything about her is delightful, especially the way her familiar eyes crinkle when she smiles.

"What are you doing here so late at night, A-Qing? Aren't you worried? It's not as safe here as it used to be."

"I can take care of myself," Xiaoqing says, amused. "You're out here too."

"Less of a crowd at night. I - this is going to sound strange."

Xiaoqing's breath catches. "What is it? You can tell me anything, Bai-jiejie, I won't think it's strange."

Bai Sizhen raises an eyebrow at her. "Are you sure you're not selling anything?"

"Promise."

"Okay. I always wanted to come here. I'm from Zhenjiang, but ever since I heard about Leifeng Pagoda and this bridge I wanted to see it. It's why I moved here. I come here all the time."

"It's beautiful," Xiaoqing says. "I can see why people come from all over."

She even kind of means it again.

"Sometimes I think I was imprisoned here in a past life - over there in the Pagoda," Bai Sizhen says, and it's like someone poured cold water down Xiaoqing's spine.

"Why do you think that?"

"I have these dreams. But that doesn't make sense - why would I want to come here, if it's a place of sorrow?"

 _Because you knew I was waiting. Some part of you knew_ , Xiaoqing thinks. She imagines shouting it at the top of her lungs.

"Maybe there's someone you're meant to meet," she says quietly, and she's not struck dead by any watching deities for it. Nor does Bai Sizhen's warm, curious gaze change. It's a different kind of heat to the way her lady used to look at her, like she could see down to the snake in Xiaoqing and approved of that too.

She doesn't know Xiaoqing. Not yet. But she wants to. Xiaoqing can tell that much, at least.

"Maybe. But it's getting cold and late. Come have a cup of tea with me, Qing-meimei. As thanks for listening to my strange dreams."

 _Yes, of course. I'd walk into the Ten Courts of the Underworld if you were with me,_ Xiaoqing thinks. She manages not to say any such thing with an effort.

"Lead the way, jiejie."

*

The tea house Bai Sizhen leads them to is just off the main street, bustling with customers even at this unreasonably late hour. There's a girl in the latest fashion - blue bell-sleeved top, long skirt, and a bob haircut - playing pipa, half drowned out by all the conversations going on around her.

Xiaoqing's chrysanthemum tea is perfectly steeped. Bai Sizhen adds rock sugar to hers, laughing at Xiaoqing's look of horror - her lady's always had a bit of a sweet tooth.

Bai Sizhen, as it turns out, is still in the business of healing.

"You're a doctor?"

"Traditional medicine. I do acupuncture too."

It's almost too fitting. A doctor all in white. "How impressive! You did say your parents were very modern."

"Yes, although they really couldn't have stopped me," Bai Sizhen says lightly, pouring them both more tea. "What about you?"

"I have a shop on the main street," Xiaoqing says.

She's managed to hang on to her storefront despite the wave of relocations, the old buildings being demolished to make way for roads and newer, taller buildings, what feels like the entirety of Hangzhou renewing around her.

"Ah, so you do sell something." Bai Sizhen sounds delighted. "What kind of shop?"

Xiaoqing shrugs. "Gifts for the living. Gifts for the dead. Whatever I want, really."

"That sounds like you."

Bai Sizhen doesn't say it like a platitude - more like it's a simple truth. It's too much. Xiaoqing's about to fly into pieces from hoping.

"How would you know? We just met."

"I feel like I know you," Bai Sizhen says, and then, over the roaring in Xiaoqing's ears, "is that strange?"

Xiaoqing has to have a sip of tea before she can speak. "No. Not at all."

"Is that my favourite customer?" a light male voice cuts in.

She knows immediately that this must be the cowherd. She lost track of Xu Xian's soul some years back, after the fifth lifetime passed without any further incident, thinking ruefully that here was clearly a blameless life into which her presence had brought trouble.

He has the same eyes too.

Bai Sizhen beams at him. "This is my good friend Xu Xian. He owns this tea house."

Xian with the downward intonation. Huh.

"Not the immortal Xian?" Xiaoqing asks, surprised. She doesn't know why it matters.

He smiles, shakes his head. "Xian for sacrifice."

Sacrifice, huh. Maybe he's here to repay Bai Sizhen this time.

"This is a lovely tea house, Xu-xianshang10."

He blushes. He's always been easy to embarrass. Innocent, really. Kind.

Bai Sizhen sees it too. She laughs. "A-Xian still doesn't know how to talk to pretty ladies."

"I can talk to you," Xu Xian says wryly, and Xiaoqing has to fight not to look surprised.

"That doesn't count and you know it," Bai Sizhen replies in the same tone. This is nothing like how they were, in their first life together. Here, now, they seem like exactly what Bai Sizhen had termed them - friends. "This is my new friend, Qing-er."

_My friend._

Just like that. The smile Xiaoqing aims at Xu Xian is probably a little alarming; she can't bring herself to care.

The entire far wall of the tea house is dominated by an enormous map of Hangzhou, the twists and turns of its narrow lanes, the walls of the old city cutting the West Lake off from the main town.

"That's a beautiful piece," Xiaoqing says.

Xu Xian smiles at her. "Thank you. It's a family heirloom. All the more precious now that the city is no longer in this shape."

Something about the layout, the intersecting lines twining and separating -

Xiaoqing's mouth drops open. She clamps it closed, hoping no one saw, her mind racing.

The shape of the city itself, an enormous focus for the kind of power needed to trap the soul of a millenia-old animal spirit. The lines now broken by the new powers that be, with their funny ideas of a new city of grids and lines and commerce and returning the lake to the city and the city to its people.

The next time she sees Fahai, she's going to laugh in his face just before she stabs him.

*

He beats her to it; of course he does. The maniac's probably been shadowing Xiaoqing.

Gods know what else he's been doing with his eternity of time. In all these years they've managed not to cross each other's path again, although she's quietly helped a few wandering, injured animal spirits when she's come across them, after he'd been at them. The ones lucky enough to live, anyway.

When she wakes the next day, there's a note on her pillow, made using her finest joss paper, in brush calligraphy so good he could sell couplets.

_Come to the Pagoda tonight at xu shi11 if you want to see her again. _

Xiaoqing slants a look out the window. The sun's barely risen. She's got plenty of time to prepare.

There's probably no one alive or dead in Hangzhou who knows Leifeng Pagoda like Xiaoqing does.

Once she'd looked up at its towering lights in despair. Now, after many years of neglect, its five stories no longer look quite so imposing. She knows people steal bricks from the foundation because they're rumoured to repel illness; she might have had a hand in spreading that rumour herself. She knows there's a mausoleum under the Pagoda, with a buried second entrance too small for a human man but not too small for a mountain snake.

The inside of the mausoleum is stifling, not much bigger than the floor of her shop, a mess of crumbling stone and rotting boxes of lacquered wood. Bai Sizhen lies crumbled in a corner in a false sleep; Fahai hadn't even bothered to bind her hands. Why would he, after all - she's harmless. Just a perfectly human doctor.

Xiaoqing hasn't just been waiting all these years. She's stronger now, smarter. Her qi suppression wards are so good he doesn't even stir, not until she's slapping the qi-sealing band around his arm and levelling her sword against his neck.

"Tell me how to release the curse," she says pleasantly.

Fahai sighs. He's so condescending, it's almost the worst thing about him. "Don't you remember, yao-guniang? The white snake can't be free. Not until Leifeng Pagoda falls or West Lake dries."

Someone gasps and it takes everything in Xiaoqing not to look toward Bai Sizhen, sitting up behind Fahai.

She's furious, all of a sudden. She's been furious for ten lifetimes, but it bubbles up now, fills her throat.

"Do you even remember what you are? What you were meant to be? When Guanshiyin gave you power, I don't think she wanted you to use it for this."

"How would you know?" Fahai says flatly.

He's not looking at Bai Sizhen, and she can't, not when she can see her creeping toward the entrance archway. Her lady is so smart - she just has to keep Fahai distracted.

"When you decided to hunt Bai-niangzi, did you know she'd been granted her mortal life by Guanshiyin? I bet you didn't. She just wanted to pay Xu Xian back. That was it. No wicked plot. What was the harm in that?"

She can't see Fahai's face like this, but he goes so still she can feel it.

"What about this mortal life?" he says, very quietly. "Did you think that was for you?"

To her horror, the qi-suppressing band she had slapped on him starts to catch fire.

Behind him, Bai Sizhen's face has gone very pale. "A-Qing? What - "

If she kills him, she'll probably never figure out how to lift the curse, but her lady would be alive. She doesn't need to think about it. Her sword bites into his skin and flesh like paper; she's almost surprised to see blood gush out.

She hadn't known if he was still mortal enough to bleed.

Whatever he is, the blood doesn't seem to matter. His hands come up to grasp at the jagged edges of her chain-sword, pulling it into its whip-shape and away from his freely bleeding neck. She yanks against his unnatural strength with all the power of a thousand year old spirit.

She can't afford to look at Bai Sizhen.

"I'll hold him off. Go!"

"No. I'm not leaving you," her brave, fool-hardy, insane lady says, and she's coming closer, why is she coming closer -

She's never been able to tell her lady what to do.

Xiaoqing lets go of the sword and wills it to stretch and wrap around Fahai's ruined neck. His shredded hands go up to clutch at it. That'll keep him busy for a bit; she couldn't care less. She turns to Bai Sizhen, wide-eyed and pale and staring at Xiaoqing like there's no one else in the room.

"Then trust me."

Nothing matters but her lady's eyes on her.

"I do - I don't know why but I do. A-Qing - why do I know your face?"

Bai Sizhen's gentle fingers trace over her cheek, wiping at the corner of her eye, the tears she hadn't known were there. Xiaoqing's heart, perfectly calm as she tussled with Fahai, starts to pound. She knows, now, exactly what she needs to do.

Bai Sizhen's lips are so soft against Xiaoqing's, her breath warm.

When they draw apart, Bai Sizhen's crying too, tears tracking down her face.

"A-Qing. Qing-meimei. Oh, I'm so sorry."

Xiaoqing has heard her name said in thousands of ways, with every single possible title and variation, but only one person ever said it like this, like she knows Xiaoqing inside out.

"Bai-jiejie?"

Bai Sizhen nods. Her face is lit up, her smile luminous. She opens her palm and the white pouch blinks into existence. She locks eyes with Xiaoqing and presses it into her hand.

With shaking hands, Xiaoqing reaches into it and pulls out the white medicine jar. Her fingers have barely closed around it when Fahai stumbles upright, her chain-sword in pieces at his feet. The qi-suppression band has completely burned off.

Not that it matters anymore. She knows what needs to happen now.

"You said so, didn't you. Only when West Lake dries, or the Pagoda topples."

She lets the ceramic jar fall.

It hits the stone with a strange dull crash and shatters; the light from within is so blinding she has to close her eyes.

The last thing Xiaoqing sees is the bright outline of Bai Sizhen, enveloped in light. Then everything begins to shake, stone and dust raining down, but she isn't worried. All she has to do is crawl toward the light. Her lady won't let anything happen to her.

*

On the 25th day of September 1925, Leifeng Pagoda falls.

Later, they'll say the foundations have been crumbing from disrepair for hundreds of years. It'll eventually be rebuilt anew, a monument to the many love stories that begin and end at the Pagoda, like Bai Suzhen's.

*

It's raining again, the next time she's on Broken Bridge.

This time, though, Xiaoqing knew to bring an umbrella, so she could raise it over the head of Bai Suzhen.

"You came."

Her vision doubles strangely at Bai Suzhen's smile - familiar from both this lifetime and the last. She's wearing a flowing white coat that flaps in the wind like her robes did, once upon a time.

"Bai-jiejie."

She's thought about what she'd say for a very long time. Now that the moment's here, though, none of the words seem adequate. Luckily, Bai Suzhen knows this about her, just like she knows everything else. She opens her arms; Xiaoqing tumbles into them.

"I knew you'd find me," Bai Suzhen whispers into her hair. "Did you know, the first time I saw you in this life, I knew you?"

"How - "

The first time - the bridge, the rain. A brilliant smile. Impossible, she thinks. The curse.

"I just did. I knew I couldn't let you walk away, but I didn't know why. Not until the Pagoda."

Xiaoqing clears her throat until she can form words again. Somehow it's easier saying it into Bai Suzhen's shoulder. "I would've looked for you forever."

Bai Suzhen's arms tighten around her almost to the point of pain. "I'm sorry for making you wait."

Xiaoqing laughs. "I'm not. How can I have any regrets?"

Bai Suzhen lets go so she can pull back and look Xiaoqing in the face. She looks as shocked as Xiaoqing has ever seen her.

"But you must have suffered so much."

"I don't regret any of it," Xiaoqing says firmly. "You're here, aren't you?"

She twines their hands together, just to make sure. This is real. They've made it. Bai Suzhen stares at their joined hands like she's thinking the same thing, and then she's smiling and leaning in under the cover of Xiaoqing's umbrella, and Xiaoqing is being thoroughly kissed.

Broken Bridge could fall now and she wouldn't notice or care.

Bai Suzhen pulls away but only as far as a hair's breadth between their lips. "Until the seas run dry and stone turns to dust, Qing-meimei."

*

Two figures stand side by side on Broken Bridge, looking out over West Lake. One in white, one in green.

Someone with the gift of true sight might instead see an enormous snake with gleaming white scales like pearls and gold eyes twined around another, the same breed but its scales a bright, virulent green.

* * *

1\. Guniang (姑娘) - mode of address, roughly "young lady".↩  
2\. Tanghulu (糖葫芦) - candied hawthorns on a stick, a traditional Chinese street food, both tart and sweet. My mouth is watering just writing this.↩  
3\. Bai-niangzi (白娘子) - "niangzi" is another form of address or title for a young woman. In the early legends Bai Suzhen didn't have a name and was simply known as Bai-niangzi.↩  
4\. Ke (刻) - Chinese unit of time. A ke is about 14 minutes.↩  
5\. Guanshiyin (观世音) - the Chinese name for the bodhisattva known as Avalokiteśvara. Worshipped as a goddess of compassion (not just by Buddhists).↩  
6\. Meimei (妹妹) - little sister. Commonly used as a cutesy term of endearment, or a form of address for a cute girl you like.↩  
7\. Jiejie/jie (姐姐) - older sister. Used to refer to an older woman/girl who is of the same generation to you.↩  
8\. Shushu (叔叔) - uncle. Specifically paternal uncle, but here it's being used as a polite form of address for an older man.↩  
9\. Yao (妖) - roughly a demon, but mainly used in folklore to refer to animal spirits which have attained human form.↩  
10\. Xiansheng (先生) - form of address, equivalent of "mister".↩  
11\. Xu shi (戌时) - roughly about 8PM.↩

_History/culture notes:_

  1. The legend of the white snake is one of China's four great folktales and must be one of the most adapted stories of all time. The first printed version appeared in the Ming dynasty but it has also been told before that and since then in all forms of Chinese opera, song, poetry, TV and film. I gave a quick run-down of the general outline of the story at the beginning - the particulars have changed over time to suit the morality of the day.
  2. The world of this story is fairly standard high fantasy China (xianxia) with its mix of Buddhist and Daoist beliefs. A core element of Chinese folklore is that animals can absorb spiritual energy and eventually attain intelligence and take human form. These are usually called yao (妖) and many of them serve as antagonists in folk tales, just as the snake spirits were antagonists in the original version of the white snake myth.
  3. This story is in part a love letter to the city of Hangzhou (杭州), an ancient city so lovely it has been known as a tourist destination for hundreds of years. The white snake myth has always been extremely particular in terms of location - the real places I use in this story all feature prominently in the original stories. More on this later.
  4. The only name the green snake ever gets in these stories is Xiaoqing (小青), literally little green. Qing-er is just an alternative diminutive I chose to use because it's a little too cute to introduce yourself as Xiaoqing.
  5. West Lake (西湖) is the main reason Hangzhou has been a famous tourist destination for hundreds of years. Its beauty has been immortalized in song and poetry and painting many times and it is strongly associated with various romantic tales (like the white snake myth).
  6. Here is one example of poetry about West Lake, Walking in Spring by West Lake by Bai Juyi:  
 _North of Lone Hill Temple, west of the Jia Pavilion,_  
 _The water’s surface has just smoothed, the foot of the cloud low._  
 _Wherever you go new-risen orioles jostle for the warmest tree:_  
 _What are they after, the newborn swallows that peak at the spring mud?_  
 _A riot of blossoms not long from now will be dazzling to the eye,_  
 _The shallow grass can hardly yet submerge the horse’s hoof._  
 _Best loved of all, to the east of the lake, where I can never walk enough,_  
 _In the shade of the green willows, the causeway of white sand._
  7. Another aspect of the xianxia setting is the existence of cultivators (修士), those who train in the mystical arts to strengthen their qi and eventually achieve immortality (you may be familiar with them from certain other very famous modern works in the xianxia genre).
  8. Xiaoqing's weapon is a chain whip (a [jiujiebian](https://blackbeltwiki.com/jiu-jie-bian)) that snaps into a sword because fantasy Chinese weapons are the best.
  9. Broken Bridge (断桥) is possibly the most famous of the bridges over the West Lake, in part thanks to its central place in the white snake myth as the place where Bai Suzhen and Xu Xian meet and reunite. The bridge has existed in some form since the Tang dynasty.
  10. Leifeng Pagoda (雷峰塔, literally thunder-peak tower) is a five story eight-sided pagoda originally constructed in 900ish AD by West Lake as a tribute by a king to a beloved concubine. The details I use in this story are all real - the mausoleum exists, people really did steal bricks from the pagoda, and it really did collapse from disrepair in 1924.
  11. Bai Suzhen being trapped in the Pagoda until either West Lake dried or Leifeng Pagoda fell (雷峰塔倒, 西湖水干) is a straight lift from the 1992 TV adaption of the white snake myth.
  12. "When the seas run dry and stone turns to dust" (海枯石烂) is a Chinese idiom originating from the Song dynasty. Not just a fancy way of saying something is forever, it also denotes the speaker's determination to stick to their path.
  13. Central to the Chinese conception of reincarnation (and stories about reincarnation) is the idea of debt (恩) and how the debts owed and collected and the entanglements of one lifetime carry on to the next.
  14. Jinshan Temple (金山寺) is a Buddhist temple that features prominently in some versions of the white snake myth. Inconveniently the real life version is not in Hangzhou but Zhenjiang but we'll just hand-wave that. I made reincarnated Bai Suzhen be from Zhenjiang as a little nod to that inconsistency.
  15. "Those who are fated to meet will travel a thousand li; those who aren't may be face to face and still miss each other" (有缘千里来相会，无缘对面不相逢) is a popular Chinese saying originating in the Song dynasty. It reflects our belief that yuan (缘) dictates even so-called chance meetings.
  16. I didn't mean for the middle portion of this story to turn into a short modern history of Hangzhou but so much interesting stuff happened that I had to incorporate it all. For example, in 1861, the forces of the religious cult/insurrection [Taiping Heavenly Kingdom](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taiping_Rebellion) laid siege to Hangzhou for months, leading to mass starvation and suicides. They eventually took the city and it didn't return to Qing hands until years later. The leader of the Taiping Rebellion claimed to be the brother of Jesus Christ, hence my little jab.
  17. In the late 1890s, as a result of China's defeat in the Sino-Japanese War, Hangzhou became a "treaty port" and a large part of the city was essentially ceded to Japan (a "concession").
  18. Hangzhou was later a major center of the revolution that overthrew the Qing dynasty and established the Republic of China in around 1911. The new republican government had ambitious plans for social change which included major renewal of the urban center, a grid design and large construction projects (which I seized on as a plot point).
  19. In Chinese folk religion, the underworld is divided into ten courts (十殿閻羅).



**Author's Note:**

> The title of this story is a slight adaption of the lyric 缘起缘却未了. 缘 (yuan) is an extremely Chinese concept loosely translated as fate - thing that makes people meet and become friends and fall for each other or pass each other by. When friends or lovers are parted by circumstance we say their yuan is up. So the title loosely translates to "fated to meet and to reunite", hence the English title. Which, yes, does evoke a certain song written for the Fast and the Furious franchise.
> 
> In writing this I drew inspiration from various versions of the story, but the version that really grabbed me as a child and has never let me go since was the [New Legend of Madame White Snake](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Legend_of_Madame_White_Snake), a now 20-year-old TV series and for my money a precursor to the current xianxia wave.
> 
> Thank you for reading. Feedback is greatly appreciated.


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